Philadelphia 76ers: Noah fired up in Philly

PHILADELPHIA — There was no reason for this game to have gone against the 76ers, no reason for them to have granted Chicago any favors in the intensity category. And no reason for the Bulls to have anticipated it, either.

Less than 24 hours earlier, Chicago wrapped up a loss at home in which Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau had used four of his starters in excess of 40 minutes each. The Bulls were expected to be tired, flat or listless. Or all of the above. They sure didn’t play that way.

Sixteen hours after landing in Philly, the Bulls handed the Sixers one of their worst losses of the season, 96-89.

“They definitely outplayed us toward the end of the game. They willed themselves to a victory,” said the Sixers’ Thad Young, who had 13 points and nine rebounds. “They’re a tough team. They’re a playoff team. They’re a contending team each and every year. We kind of knew it’d be a close game. We knew the Bulls wouldn’t go down without a fight.”

Consecutive turnovers at the Sixers’ end of the floor resulted in back-to-back buckets at the Bulls’ end, with Joakim Noah’s 17-foot jump shot giving Chicago its largest lead, at 90-83, with 1:19 to go in the game. Sixers coach Doug Collins called a timeout, but there was nothing left to do, really.

After his basket, Noah gave a curtain-call performance of the act he had done throughout the night — stuffing invisible pistols into their imaginary holsters on his uniform shorts. Noah told reporters afterward that cheering by Sixers’ fans after his injury in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series last spring motivated him for this game.

That probably was what Jrue Holiday was talking about.

“They showed a lot of heart. They showed a lot of fight,” Holiday said. “That game, coming down the stretch, they made good plays.”

Holiday attempted to save the Sixers from an embarrassing loss with an eight-point, four-assist third quarter, during which the Sixers kept things nearly level with Chicago. Holiday finished with 26 points and nine assists.

In a five-point game with 60 seconds to go, Jason Richardson took an open 3-pointer when he didn’t need to. The shot clanged out and the Sixers were forced into committing fouls.

On the bright side, Richardson became the NBA’s 11th-leading 3-point shooter with a fourth-quarter trey. On the down side, the Sixers (12-10) suffered their fourth loss in six games.

Chalk up the loss for a few reasons: The Sixers were 9-for-22 in the fourth quarter, 2-for-14 overall from 3-point range, and set a floor record for fewest free throws in a half (zero in the first). In all, Collins’ guys went 5-for-11 from the line, compared to 24-for-26 by Chicago.

“The free-throw line — we didn’t make a free throw in the first quarter,” Collins said. “I think we got beat by 19 at the free-throw line. We’ve got to do a better job creating contact going to the basket so we can get rewarded and get to the line.”

Added Holiday: “It’s a lot harder than it looks.”

So is winning two games in one calendar day, but the Bulls were able to pull off that feat.

Chicago didn’t seem fazed at all by the Sixers’ desire to push the tempo, and the Sixers had every reason to. The Sixers, by all accounts, should have made quick work of the Bulls. They didn’t. Actually, they made Chicago feel at home in Wells Fargo Center, with the on-court antics of a few Bulls.

Noah made a bucket toward the end of the first, cutting the Sixers’ lead to 24-21, and giving his first demonstration of that gunslinger show.

The Bulls took the lead for good in the third quarter, on a pair of 3-pointers from Nate Robinson and another from Marco Belinelli.

“We had five steals, and we only had three late in the game,” Collins said. “That tells me we had no defensive activity. None.”